Mario Guitars Unveils the Honcho

Murfreesboro, TN (July 9, 2018) -- Mario Guitars debuted the redesigned 2018 Honcho model at the Summer NAMM Show. The hybrid guitar is designed to provide the best of both the classic T-style and S-style guitars.

Designed to be incredibly versatile, the Honcho features the neck and middle pickups of an S-style, but the bridge pickup of a classic T-style. “This guitar allows the player to go from Jimi Hendrix to Merle Haggard at just the flip of a pickup selector switch.” said Mario Guitars creator Mario Martin. “It is meant to be versatile enough to be the only guitar a Nashville session player would need in the studio.”

John Osborne, of country act Brothers Osborne, bought one of the first five Honchos from the 2018 line during the Summer NAMM show. “It is a truly killer guitar,” stated Osborne, “The tone of the second position has more of a bite to it than a standard Strat and that is really what I need.” He intends to use his two-tone sunburst Honcho on Brothers Osborne’s upcoming tour.

The Honcho features a 25.5” scale, custom contoured body, pickguard featuring T-style bridge plate cutaway, Wilkinson tremolo, S-style control layout with one volume pot, two tone pots and a 5-way switch. The pickups are a proprietary set from Lindy Fralin — an adapted S-style set that is wound to blend better with a T-style bridge pickup.

“We realize other T/S hybrids have been done in the past, but I feel as though we have really perfected the blending of the two styles,” Martin said at Summer NAMM “If you look closely at the body, you can distinctly see that the Honcho body shape is half S and half T; split almost perfectly down the middle. To really hammer it home, we have mounted the bridge pickup to a traditional T-style bridge plate to ensure it maintains that T-style twang and feel. ”

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